The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. Sesame Street’s YouTube channel was hacked over the weekend, and all of its content was taken down and replaced with a 7-minute hardcore porn. [via The Daily What]

2. If you’ve ever fantasized about Lady Gaga giving Bill and Hillary Clinton a Marilyn Monroe-style serenade, then it’s your lucky day. Watch a clip of her performance at a birthday party/benefit for the former President’s foundation here.

3. In an effort to compete with traditional publishers, Amazon is planning to release 122 fiction and nonfiction books of its own this fall, in both physical and e-book form. Says longtime agent Richard Curtis: “Everyone’s afraid of Amazon. If you’re a bookstore, Amazon has been in competition with you for some time. If you’re a publisher, one day you wake up and Amazon is competing with you too. And if you’re an agent, Amazon may be stealing your lunch because it is offering authors the opportunity to publish directly and cut you out.” [via NYT]

4. According to a theory put forth in a new book, Vincent van Gogh didn’t commit suicide. Rather, the famed Dutch painter was shot by 16-year-old Rene Secretan, a local boy who often bullied him. [via The Daily Beast]

5. McDonald’s is planning to launch its own in-store channel. Reality TV king Mark Burnett , BBC America, and KABC-TV Eyewitness News have all signed on to provide content for the new network, which will focus on “local news and entertainment features, such as spotlights on upcoming films, albums and TV shows.” [via LAT]